TRENTON, NJ – For David Chase, a three-day pre-“Sopranos” fact-finding mission to north Jersey in October 1995 was just another business trip. But to the man who served as Chase’s guide – lawyer and screenwriter wannabe Robert Baer – the three days spent with Chase were among the most significant of his life.

The problem is, Baer can’t seem to accept the fact that Chase doesn’t feel the same way.

The contrast between the two men was brought into sharp focus yesterday when they came face to face on the fourth day of the civil trial resulting from Baer’s lawsuit against Chase.

If there’s one thing the trial has made clear, it’s that Baer believes the guidance he gave Chase in a three-day tour of mob hot spots was so important that Baer should have been brought in as co-creator when “The Sopranos” finally got off the ground.

Unfortunately, yesterday’s testimony from Chase and two other defense witnesses made Baer’s contributions seem about as significant as a grain of sand in the Sahara.

“It’s more important in your mind than it is in my mind,” said Chase when Baer – acting as his own lawyer in cross-examining Chase – tried to stress the significance of the time they spent together.

Throughout the day, as Chase and the other witnesses schooled the jury in the complexities of TV production, Baer appeared increasingly clueless about the industry he so desperately seeks to enter.

Baer even questioned the accuracy of Tony Soprano’s route home in the opening titles of the show.

Chase’s reply made Baer look foolish.

“When Tom Hanks is up in the space capsule, he didn’t really go there,” Chase said.

A day earlier, when Baer was on the witness stand, one of Chase’s lawyers, David Harris, inadvertently summed up Baer’s case when he asked, “[Chase’s life is] what you wanted to become, isn’t it?”